voting. and the obama campaign isn't letting up. >> my job is not to worry about those -- >> tonight, dnc chairwoman debbie wasserman-schultz on the democratic effort to get out the vote in iowa and beyond. "mother jones" unearthed yet another lost romney tape from his bain years. >> bain capital is an investment partnership. >> i'll ask robert reich what mitt romney means when he says he's harvesting companies. if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. >> and the guy who has no idea what he's talking about when it comes to women has the nerve to call senator claire mccaskill unladylike. we'll bring you the latest on the todd akin disaster. good to have you with us tonight, folks. thank for watching. iowa kicked off the 2012 election in january. today it was the first state where people could cast their votes in person for the general election.

the race is on. the race has been tight in iowa, but president obama has the momentum. the latest ten-day poll average from "real clear politics" shows president obama with nearly a five-point lead. iowa voters were out in full force starting at 7:00 this morning. one election commissioner said this could be a record-breaking year. >> this was by far the busiest opening day we've had in the ten years i've been in the office. we were thinking 100 people. 100 would have been a good number. that's what it was four years ago. we're well past that. we're not to noon yet. >> look at the early voting numbers from 2008 to see how big a record breaker it could be this year. 2008, 33% of all ballots were cast before election day. early voting favored barack obama over john mccain by 18 points. 58% to 40%. this year, 27 states and washington, d.c., will have early in-person voting prior to election day. the campaigns are estimating an

early voting participation at around 40% this year. two out of every five ballots will be filled out before november 6th in this election cycle. today is truly the beginning of the end of the presidential election. but one candidate is in much better position to take advantage of the new voting in this dynamic thing we call american democracy. here's a look at mitt romney's field offices in iowa. the romney camp pass 12 outposts across the hawkeye state. now take a look at president obama's operation. his field operation in iowa. the obama campaign has 66 of these outpost offices. the president's campaign has a 5 1/2-1 advantage over mitt romney when it comes to operation in iowa. these field offices are the lifeblood of presidential campaigns. this is where campaigns stage the get out to vote efforts and organize volunteers. today, "the new york times"

reported from polling places in iowa and found mostly outspoken obama supporters. >> do you think that the romney supporters are out voting early as well? or are they more likely to show up on election day? >> i don't see them. >> does this give you a false sense of security maybe? >> we're not taking anything for granted. i don't see them out here today. >> it's stunning for mitt romney to be so underprepared to fight in the ground game in iowa. he's had the same problems as the primary candidate. romney only started making frequent appearances in the state a week before the iowa caucuses. by then, it was too late. and he lost a tight race. romney's campaign should have refocused their efforts, but instead, they find themselveses in a huge disadvantage, as the first ballots were cast today. president obama is moving in for the final knockout punch. the obama campaign unveiled a full two-minute television video ad today with president directly addressing viewers. the ad is airing in four swing states, including iowa. it has the look and feel of a candidate's closing argument.

>> it's time for a new economic patriotism. rooted in the belief that growing our economy against with a strong, thriving middle class. read my plan. compare it to governor romney's and decide for yourself. thanks for listening. >> the president introduced the theme of economic patriotism into his stump speech at a campaign event in virginia today. >> during campaign season, you always hear a lot about patriotism. well, you know what? it's time for a new economic patriotism. an economic patriotism rooted in the belief that growing our economy begins with a strong and thriving middle class. >> this is a new line in the president's campaign speech. it's not simply a call for policies and programs to support the middle class. it's a contrast with his opponent. the contrast is on full display in another ad using mitt romney's own words. >> there are 47% of the people who will vote for the president

no matter what, who are dependent upon government, who believe they are victims, who believes government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe they're entitled to health care, food, housing, you name it. they'll vote for the president no matter what. my job is not to worry about these people. >> one of mitt romney's central arguments of the campaign is president obama just has not created jobs. >> when you can see policies that have not created the jobs america needs, then you know it's time to choose a new leader, get a new coach. get america growing again. >> romney's spokesperson andrea sal lead out the official romney line on msnbc today. >> haven't created a single net new job. >> that was september 4th. excuse me.

today romney lost this argument. the beareu of labor statistics announced a provision to its jobs count from march of 2011 to march of this year. the revised number includes an additional 386,000 jobs. this means more than 5 million jobs have been added since president obama took office. the bottom line here? there are more jobs now than when the president took over for george w. bush in january of 2009. this has been one of romney's main attacks on the president. and now, it's off the table. romney isn't in a position where he can afford to lose any of his weapons. i think he's scrambling big-time. all the polls show that. on a personal note i can't wait for the debates. one of the lines being used by the republicans right now, the conservatives is that mitt romney is just this great debater. i mean, he is a great debater. can somebody remind the american people, and i'll do it right

now, that we have a smart guy on our side? president obama, let me remind you, is a fierce competitor. he will be prepared. he knows his material. he knows who he is. he knows his accomplishments and he knows exactly where he wants to take this country. can you really say that about mitt romney? get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question. can the president sustain this momentum for 40 days? text "a" for yes, text "b" for no to 622639. always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com and leave a comment. we're joined by florida congresswoman, debbie wasserman-schultz, chair of the democratic national committee. congresswoman, good to have you with us tonight. >> thanks, ed. good to be with you again. >> you bet. are democrats very confident in the ground game that you can duplicate this around the country, what you have been able to do in day one in iowa? >> well, ed, we're very proud if you look at the contrast between our two campaigns, president obama's campaign has been in the process and we believe successfully has established the

most significant dynamic grassroots presidential campaign in history. that's why you see that the offices and the ground game and the grassroots network that we have across the state of iowa and across states in this country. in iowa, president obama was so proud to win iowa in the democratic primary of 2008. he had an organization there that's never left. i can tell you that from now until election day, i'm looking forward to being in iowa this weekend. we're going to continue to go door to door and neighborhood to neighborhood to talk to voters about this moving forward. >> give us a snapshot of the swing states and the ground operation. i mean, we just showed the map of iowa. it's rather overwhelming. the intensity. and the ground game that president obama has got versus the challenger, mitt romney. does it look this way in all of the other swing states? >> well, you know, mitt romney, let's not just dismiss the organization that he has. when you have a handful of

billionaires essentially trying to buy the white house for you, you know, you can pay for a few offices and for some folks to get out there and knock on some doors. they certainly aren't doing nothing. they've got an organization there as well. but we're proud that we have a grassroots people powered campaign. one that has folks out there, you know, thousands of door knocks and phone calls and we've got a lot of online outreach that occurs across the country. so we're counting on grassroots operations to help carry president obama across the finish line. back to the white house. >> how important is the early voting? do you expect this kind of early vote in all of these states? >> absolutely. early voting is critical. we're thrilled at the early voting organization that we have and the gop effort we have. starting in iowa today. we also want to remind people that they've got to get out, there's still time to register to vote in states across the country. go to gottoregister.com. because they can get the information they need to sign up and register to vote.

plenty of time left. >> and what about combatting voter suppression? has this been the game plan? is this the best thing you can to? >> you know what we've been doing, at the same time we've been fighting battles of voter suppression legally and been successful through federal courts with judges appointed by republican and democratic presidents knocking these laws down, clearing away these obstacles, we've not been taking that for granted. we made sure we get the people the information they need to clear those obstacles away themselves and make sure they can get what they need to bring to the polls and also what they need to get registered to vote. >> all right. there's been a lot of conversation, congresswoman, about polls and who's ahead. we can't find a poll where mitt romney is ahead. in fact, i made the comment, i would like to be in mitt romney's office because i'd like to see their game plan on how they expect to get there, if you know what i mean. what is their roadmap to victory? ohio is crucial. and the early -- and the get out to vote, obviously what we just talked about, is crucial.

does it have to be bigger than 2008 for president obama to win? >> well, you know, i don't want to be -- you don't want to put too much stock in polls 40 days out, whether we're up, whether we're down, we're concentrating on that ground game. you mentioned the debates earlier in your opening comments, ed. you know, let's not discount the fact that mitt romney is an experienced and skilled debater. he -- >> he's been all over the map, congresswoman. i mean, the guy has been all over the map on health care, on taxes. i mean, he's -- huh? >> ed, keep in mind, though, he's a pretty decent closer. he's had a lot of time to prepare for these debates. during the democratic national convention, reportedly he did a week of debate prep camp. he's gone through 48 hours, done five debate practices. president obama has been practicing but he's got a day job, and he's been trying to balance that. >> i got to have some fun with this. he had a week of debate prep? and i must believe that the way he's been talking he's come out more confused from that debate prep than what we've seen. we've seen him stumble all over himself just in the last cycle, he contradicted himself yesterday on health care.

speaking to an nbc reporter. >> let's remember, he's going to come out and he's going to be prepared to, you know, just coming on to the stage with the president of the united states gives you some gravitas right there. and typically in the first debate -- the challenger was declared the winner. so let's just keep in mind that we can't take anything for granted. let's focus on the ground game. we've got 40 days to go. >> you've got a good day one. that's for sure. congresswoman debbie wasserman-schultz with us on "the ed show." thanks so much. answer tonight's question at the bottom of the screen. share your thoughts on twitter @edshow and facebook. we want to know what you think. coming up, yes, there's another video of mitt romney. it has surfaced and shows his true identity of how he views middle class workers in america. we'll show you the video and robert reich will comment. hmm, it says here that cheerios helps lower cholesterol as part of a heart healthy diet. that's true.

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coming up, mitt romney reveals the real goal of bain

capital in a newly discovered video. former labor secretary robert reich has reaction next. and i'll have commentary. and mitt romney says that he will use the debate to fact check the president's ad claims? and tell the truth? we'll have a romney fact check of our own coming up. and george w. bush will pay a visit to the island where mitt romney's money lives. we'll have all the details of bush's move to the cayman islands for a little trip to talk it over. share your thoughts with us on facebook and on twitter using #edshow. we're right back. ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ that should do it. enjoy your new shower. [ door opens, closes ] welcome back to "the ed show." another video has surfaced

showing the real mitt romney. "mother jones" has done it again. this time getting a video from bain and company by a former employee. sometimes they'll get you every time, won't they? the video celebrates the company's 25th anniversary. and includes footage from 1985 of romney talking about bain capital, the spinoff corporation he founded. at the time, bain capital was relatively new and romney explains the company mission. >> bain capital is an investment partnership which was formed to invest in startup companies and ongoing companies. then to take an active hand in managing them and hopefully five to eight years later to harvest them at a significant profit. the fund was formed on september 30th of last year. it's been about ten months then. it was formed with $37 million in invested cash. >> editing of the video was done prior to "mother jones" obtaining it, but the key phrase in the videotape is this.

harvest them at a significant profit. now, this may be no big deal to private equity firms, but let's be very clear. romney basically is describing an economic model firmly rejected by the middle class of this country, because they are the ones who suffer. the people that lose their jobs to see them go overseas. that's an economic model. which throws workers to the wolves. romney has been grasping to defend this economic model throughout his campaign. >> i'm very proud of the fact that throughout my career i have worked to try and build enterprises, hopefully to return money to investors. there's nothing wrong with profit, by the way. that profit -- that profit -- that profit -- that profit went to pension funds, to charities. it went to a wide array of institutions. a lot of people benefited from that and, by way, as enterprises become more profitable, they can hire more people. >> romney's words keep clashing with reality. which is why the story of mike

ernst, a former employee of ampad, has been so effective against romney. >> out of the blue one day, we were told to build a 30-foot stage. a group of people walked out on that stage and told us that the plant is now closed and all of you are fired. >> let's bring in robert reich, former labor secretary under president bill clinton, now a professor at public policy at uc berkeley, and author of "beyond outrage" now available in paperback. mr. reich, good to have you back with us tonight. i want to play another piece from the same 1985 video where mitt romney offers three reasons bain and company decided to create bain capital. here it is. >> three reasons. we recognize that we have the potential to develop a significant and proprietary flow of business opportunities. secondly, we had concepts and experience which would allow us to identify potential value and

hidden value in a particular investment candidate, and third, we had the consulting resources and management skills and management resources to become actively involved in the companies we invested in to help them realize their potential value. >> i tell you what, he has the corporate lingo down. we didn't hear one word about creating jobs and we never would under this economic model. do you believe we would? >> no, ed, in fact, creating jobs, ed, at best is a particular product maybe of a long-term strategy to build new products and also build new markets and keep americans employed. but that is not the centerpiece of private equity and it's certainly not the centerpiece of bain capital. when mitt romney was talking art about harvesting and maximizing profits, what he was talking about was a technique of squeezing payrolls. payrolls are 70% of the cost structure of most companies.

the easiest way is to squeeze payrolls, get rid of people, cut benefits, to even cut wages. that is too often exactly what private equity managers do. because you see, they're not out for the long term. they're not out for the 20 or 25 years, the new products, the new possibilities. they are out to, in the short term, maximize profits for themselves and for their investors. >> so the connection here is, i believe, personally, that if mitt romney were to be president of the united states, he would support and advocate legislation that it would make it easier for corporations to do just this, outsource the jobs and he wants to have, you know, right-to-work in every state in america. he's been very clear on that.

what does this say to the middle class? not to be fear mongering, but what would this do to the middle class in this country? >> well, it's the same set of policy, it's the same outlook, it's the same frame of reference we've seen coming from wall street and corporate america for 30 years now. i mean, even before that, when engine charlie wilson who eisenhower named to defense secretary, said what's good for gm is good for america, and vice versa, he was ridiculed because most people understood that what is good for the big corporation in terms of profits is not necessarily good for workers, even though at that time gm was unionized and engine charlie's words more likely the fact then than they are right now. the fact is for the last 30 years america has seen corporations do better and better and better and yet the median wage has gone absolutely nowhere, adjusted for inflation. most people are more insecure in terms of their jobs and their benefits are drying up. corporate profits should not necessarily come at the expense of workers but, in fact, that is exactly what has happened and the bain framework, the bain strategy is at the center of

this strategy overall. >> harvest is a very interesting word that he used. it's kind of like lingo, not a few years ago, you know, the term "out of the box." i remember back in the '80s when farming wasn't too bad and a certain player harvested so many numbers or we're going to go in and harvest a business. the lingo was -- >> when you harvest, the question is, what you leave back in the dirt. after you do the harvesting. >> exactly. >> unfortunately, these days, and certainly bain capital's technique and the technique of a lot of private equity managers and hedge fund managers and vulture capitalists is to harvest the profits and leave the workers back in the dirt. that's what we've seen. that's what we experienced. it's not hard to convince americans that that's been going on. they've been living it. >> robert reich, great to have you with us on "the ed show." thanks so much. coming up, mitt romney explains his winning strategy for the presidential debates. find out why he thinks this election boils down to three issues. his choices just might surprise you. and todd akin keeps on

putting his foot in his mouth. today, he called his opponent unladylike and he called her an uncaged wildcat. we'll have the latest on the republican disaster in missouri. that's ahead. [ male announcer ] the 2013 smart comes with 8 airbags, a crash management system and the world's only tridion safety cell which can withstand over three and a half tons. small in size. big on safety.

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and we are back. thanks for watching "the ed show" tonight, folks. mitt romney is revealing his strategy for what could be one

of the biggest nights of his campaign. big numbers here, folks. 52 million people are expected to watch next wednesday's debate with president obama. and mitt has a plan. he says he's going to go out and tell the truth. >> i think the president will not be able to continue to mischaracterize my pathway and so i'll be able to describe mine, he will describe his and people will make a choice. >> karl rove loves the idea. he wrote today in the "wall street journal," "mr. romney must call out the president and set the record straight in a presidential tone." sounds good. and romney's taken his advice to heart. in fact, he says there are three issues he needs to correct the president on. here's the first one -- >> when he says i was in favor of liquidating the automobile industry, nothing could be further from the truth. my plan was to rebuild the auto industry and take it through bankruptcy so that could happen. >> oh, really? romney's starting with an easy one here.

we know exactly what he thinks about the automobile loan. because he wrote about it in 2008. romney said, let detroit go bankrupt. he said, federal money could kill the automobile industry. but the cash injection did what? the absolute opposite. automakers got special financing from the taxpayers. and, of course, michigan's unemployment level hit its lowest point in three years. general motors is reporting profits again. now, mitt romney wants to set the record straight. he says he actually wanted to rebuild the automobile industry by sending it into bankruptcy? maybe romney can explain his stance on the automobile industry for voters in michigan and ohio during the debate. where he is trailing. here's the second thing that mitt romney wants to clear up for all of us out there. >> he says i'm in favor of lowering taxes on wealthy people. no, i'm not. i'm not going to reduce the taxes on the wealthy at all. in fact, i want to lower taxes on middle income people.

he says i want to raise them on middle income people. that's completely inaccurate. >> really? it will be interest to watch romney set the president straight on his tax cut plan. we spent time on "the ed show" trying to figure out how he'll balance the budget without raising taxes. in fact, romney might have revealed too much about his tax plan to a crowd in ohio yesterday. listen as he tells them not to expect any tax cuts. >> i want to bring the rates -- don't be expecting a huge cut in taxes because i'm going to lower deductions and exemptions. >> romney just said he'd cut deductions and exemptions. hopefully he can give us more facts about how that would help the middle class during the debate. here's the third issue romney wants to fact check the president on -- >> he says i'm opposed to abortion even in cases of rape and incest, and the life of the mother. that's wrong. one ad after the other of his

has been determined to be factually inaccurate. >> hopefully romney can finally clear his position on abortion during this debate because we're all confused. you see, in 1994, he said abortion should be safe and legal. in 2002, he said he'd preserve and protect a woman's right to choose. wait a minute. in 2007, romney said he'd be delighted to sign a ban, a bill to ban abortions. and tonight, his campaign website identifies romney as pro-life. me wants to overturn roe v. wade. he supports a personhood measure. romney says president obama has, well, he's just gotten him all wrong on all of these issues, these three big issues. maybe he can clarify the truth for us coming up on wednesday night. i'm joined tonight by steve benen, msnbc contributor and writer for the maddow blog. he keeps track of mitt romney's lies in a series call mitt mendacity. great to have you with us tonight, steve.

romney's own pollster said last month, we're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers. so why is romney's debate strategy to fact check the president? i find it interesting. >> that's a good question. i was thinking, on the way over here, how i haven't been in college for a long time, but i remember being a freshman and taking psych 101 and remember learning about something when people identify their most glaring faults and project those faults on to the other people. i'm think this is a great example of that. because mitt romney has demonstrated over the course of several months as one of the most dishonest i've ever seen. so for him to turn around and say he wants to look forward to using the debates to somehow suggest the president has been dishonest, i think that's a classic example of projection. >> you used the word dishonest twice. you have no problem with that?

romney has a rough track record when it comes to telling the truth? >> you know, it's funny, you mentioned, i do this series online at maddowblog.com every friday afternoon chronicling mitt's mendacity. it's quite a list because at this point it's getting awfully long. it's hard to even count all of the times mitt romney has said something that's just glaringly breathtakingly dishonest, from the economy to energy policy, to national security. it's astounding. i remember paul krugman earlier this year described mitt romney has being almost pathological in his approach to the truth. i think on average, all things being equal, that's not an unreasonable thing to say. >> can romney make president obama look like a liar? >> it's going to be very difficult. i think it's fair to say that the president has been tough on mitt romney of late. he's running a series of very aggressive ads. you mentioned earlier in the show about the 47% ad in particular. but all those ads stand up

really well to scrutiny. there's nothing in any of the president's ads that has been plainly untrue. i think all candidates and all politicians are going to try and put their own spin on the facts, but the president has been accurate and honest throughout the campaign. i don't think mitt romney can say the thing. >> it's going to be interesting. that's one of the dynamics of the first debate, how aggressive president obama will be in calling out mitt romney on how inaccurate. we'll call it inaccurate or maybe even, he'll use the word dishonest, about his position. steve benen. good to have you with us. thanks so much. there's a lot more coming up in the next half hour of "the ed show." stay with us. >> if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. >> the missouri republican who has no idea how a woman's body works is now calling his opponent unladylike. and tammy baldwin's campaign is hitting tommy thompson for pledging to do away with medicare. the latest on those senate races, next. and george w. bush is creeping up on mitt romney like a cayman island stingray. tonight, we'll show you why "w" just might be mitt romney's

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welcome back to "the ed show." congressman todd akin, well, he has struck again. this time, the republican senate candidate demeaned his opponent, senator claire mccaskill. akin told "the kansas city star," "i think we have a clear path to victory and apparently claire mccaskill thinks we do, too, because she was very aggressive at the debate which was quite different than it was when she ran against jim talen. she had a confidence and was much more ladylike in 2006. but in the debate on friday she came on swinging and i think that's because she feels threatened." republicans are trying to ignore akin's latest sexist comment. an rnc spokesperson said "i think it's best if the nrsc weighs in on these questions because we're so focused on the presidential."

the nrcc spokesperson said, "decline to comment." it gets worse. according to "the los angeles times" akin told supporters, "the first two minutes, wow, it's like somebody let a wildcat out of the cage. she was just furious and attacking in every different direction which was a little bit of a surprise to us." you know, it's par for the course, from the candidate who said this -- >> it seems to me, first of all, from what i understand from doctors, that's really rare. if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. >> of course, akin tried to apologize and now that republicans are struggling to regain the senate, they are starting to throw their support behind the controversial candidate in missouri. yesterday, the nrcc officially endorsed him and the chair of the democratic senatorial

campaign committee says the endorsement taints every republican senate, senator running in this election cycle. >> just a few weeks ago, every one of those republicans said that what he said was so offensive and how he said it was so offensive that they could not support him. and they are going to have to answer to the question about why is it not offensive today? i think that is a legitimate question that is going to be asked not just of those republicans who now are going to endorse him or put money in, but of every republican candidate who is running. >> joining me tonight, keli goff, who is political correspondent for root.com and sam stein, political reporter for "the huffington post." great to have both of you with us. keli, you first. how offensive is this? how damaging is it? is it something claire mccaskill has to respond to?

>> well, i'd say on a scale of 1 to 10, we're heading into, like, 20 territory, ed. i think at a certain point this actually makes me wonder what must a republican candidate or any candidate do to not get support? right? like, i think at this point we have to start having a competition just to see where the lines of offensiveness, how far we can push these boundaries. apparently making rape jokes doesn't do it, making misogynistic comments doesn't do it. maybe somebody has to drop the "n" bomb, but with rick perry and the rock thing. >> sam, how does he overcome this? >> i don't think he does. todd akin should have a rule he shouldn't speak about women or women's issues because it causes him more problems than it's worth. obviously missouri is a conservative state, or trending conservative. it's not going to vote for president obama like it did. claire mccaskill has always been in a dog fight with respect to the senate race. you know, if some respects if i were the nrsc, i'd be rooting

for todd akin not to win because if he ends up in the senate, his image, the stuff that he says, the possibility he can say something even more, you know, outrageous, that would weigh over the party every day. i don't think they want that. >> and, ed, let's not forget, you know, emily's list has new polling data of their own that shows the female candidate they're supporting, among them, claire mccaskill, are doing very well in the races because of the perception of the gop's stance on women's issues. that's what the polling is indicating. shelley berkley's race, elizabeth warren's state. claire mccaskill's race. it's helping democratic female candidates. >> because the problem is the republican party has very few constituencies left they can rely on. it's primarily old, white men. if you want to alienate women further than they've been alienated in this process, you have politicians like todd akin. they're suffering a gender gap. this makes it worse. i know it won't have an effect in the missouri race when it comes to the presidential contest, but it creates an image problem for other races in -- >> that's why nobody wanted to embrace this guy. they have to because they want

to win the senate so bad. here's a new poll. let's take a look at the indiana senate race. congressman joe donnelly two points ahead of state treasurer richard mourdock. it's in the margin of error. it should set off alarm bells at the nrcs, shouldn't it, sam? >> yeah, i mean, listen, this is a trend not just about indiana. it's about, you know, maybe half a dozen states now where we're seeing democratic senate candidates basically rising up above the republican opponents. you have to look at larger trends to explain it. one of them i think is almost undiscussed is how the question about who can handle the economy has changed. it used to be obama was suffering a big deficit next to romney with that. since several weeks ago, probably tied to the convention, those numbers have turned and all of a sudden the democratic brand with respect to the economy has become more popular than the republican brand. >> mourdock who has been a hardliner, he's been trying to embrace the moderate positions claiming he's more open to compromise, claiming he will protect social security and medicare. but this is not the same mourdock who defeated richard lugar in the primary. are richard lugar and others paying their price for the

extremism? >> i would add to what sam said, part of the aftermath of 47%-gate. it's tough to make the argument you're best on the economy when you think you should only be working for half of the people on the economy, right? that's how the comments were perceived. to your question, ed, i want to add, this is not just having a trickle-down effect to other senate races. the only shot we have at electing a new woman governor is actually -- >> it's ticket-wide, no question. >> who shouldn't be in a neck and neck race, but is, because of what's going on nationally with the gop. >> keli goff, sam stein. coming up, a hidden video at a mitt romney fund-raiser has sparked controversy about mitt romney's past investments in china. we'll tell you all about it next. ♪

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up next, new details about mitt romney's past investments in china. and later george w. bush is staying away from the campaign trail, but his trip to the cayman islands could be a headache for mitt.

when i was back in my private equity days we went to china to buy a factory there. and, boy, about 20,000 people, and they work in these huge factories. they make various small appliances. and as we were walking to this facility, seeing them work, the number of hours they work for days. what they earned, living in dormitories with the little bathrooms at the end, maybe ten rooms. in the rooms they had 12 girls per room. three bunk beds on top of each other. >> welcome back to "the ed show." you know, mitt romney never specifies what factory he's talking about in that clip from

the fund-raising dinner in florida, but his account of visiting that factory is renewing interest in his investments in china. and a new report finds the conditions you just heard mitt romney describe, the long hour, the low wages, the dormitories filled to the brim, were practically the pitch that had him invest in a company in china back in 1998. the "the boston globe" reports on a document put out by global tech appliances, china based home appliance company, on april 8th, 1998. the document meant to attract investors noted the company used inexpensive labor and peak production periods required six-day workweeks and two ten-hour shifts were day. it also describes the 14 buildings that served as dormitories for up to 3,700 workers. by way, the inexpensive labor is put it lightly. an institute says in 1998, global tech employees received a wage of 24 cents an hour. that's less than 2% of u.s. wages at the time. the global tech document also advertised its low tax

liability, being located in china, meant a lower overall effective tax rate than u.s. corporations paid at the time. the company also said the operations would not be subject to material united states taxes because it should not be considered to have significant income effectively connected with a trade or business in the united states. guy plays all the angles, doesn't he? so mitt romney, the presidential candidate, who now talks tough on china and says that president obama isn't tough on china, what do you think he did with all that information? well, on april 17th, 1998, just 9 days after the document was released, brookside incorporated, an affiliate of bain capital, acquired about 6% of global tech. mitt romney was listed as the sole shareholder, sole director, president and ceo of brookside incorporated. mitt romney chose to pay less taxes and exploit workers all

for a profit. middle classers, you nervous tonight? you ought to be. tonight in our survey, i asked, can the president sustain his momentum for 40 days? 99% of you say yes. 1% of you say no. coming up, george w. bush is back. this time he's going to be dancing up a storm in the cayman islands. you won't believe the stunt he's pulling only five days before the election. we'll bring you the details next. [ male announcer ] the 2013 smart comes with 8 airbags,

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see, how to capitalize on asia as an emerging fund superpower. mitt romney would love that one, don't you think? if you don't like financial regulation, you can attend a speech on accepting regulation as a way of life. and influencing the regulators. can't you just see bush saying, i'm down there to try to make them influence the regulators? republicans have been doing a great job by keeping bush away from this election cycle this election season, but bush didn't attend the gop convention, and he didn't get a lot of mentions there, either. in his videotape appearance, well, was not played in primetime. just when republicans thought that they were rid of w., he's back. and this time he could be costing romney votes right before the election. how's the public going to view this one? for more, let's turn to msnbc political analyst and "bloomberg view" columnist, jonathan alter.

>> hi, ed. >> everybody's going to pay attention -- great to have you with us tonight. everybody's going to pay attention to what w. says. what's he going to say about offshore accounts? isn't he kind of walking into a mitt romney minefield here? >> he's not going to say anything about offshore accounts and will steer as far clear from the press as he possibly can. what it does is it reminds voters of what they already know. that they learned about this cayman islands swiss bank account thing months ago and it did serious damage to mitt romney. it's impossible to tell how much damage. the polls don't actually tell that. but this really -- you could argue before the videotape this did as much as anything to wreck his campaign. americans are smart. they might not be financial wizards but they know you don't put your money in the cayman

islands just for a good investment. you're putting it there, you're keep it secret for a purpose to avoid taxes. it's very hard -- >> this just a bad spotlight at a bad time. >> terrible. and, but the real problem is what mitt romney did in 2007 before he ran for president at the first time. any rational would-be presidential candidate, the first thing that they would do would be to make some sacrifices in their own financial life for appearances stake. >> sure. >> why would he not get any fund he was involved with out of the cayman islands, out of the swiss bank accounts? not be cutting corners with his i.r.a. and all the other things here. it's just -- it's beyond reason. why he would be exposed this way. and a lot of republicans are saying the same thing. >> well, how angry do you think priebus and mitt romney are at bush for pulling this one? >> they can't be happy. it's almost at this point like mitt romney can't catch a break in this campaign. >> he really can't.

it is amazing. jonathan, good to have you with us tonight. that's "the ed show." i'm ed schultz. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. good evening, rachel. good evening, ed. thanks to you at home for staying with us the next hour. it's now 40 days out from election day. even though it feels every year like the election season gets longer and longer and longer, this last homestretch between the start of the debate until election day, this is always about the same amount of time. at least in recent elections. and so off on this date in 2004, which was the last time we had an incumbent president running for re-election, at this time on this date in that campaign, the campaign you might remember was all about iraq. >> at odds with the hopeful picture described by the president. mr. bush was challenged during an interview with fox news about last spring's mission accomplished appearance on the "uss abraham lincoln." >> would you do it again? >> you mean have the sign up there?